Ukraine on Tuesday denounced a 30-year-old agreement under which it gave up its nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees that never materialized, while pushing for an invitation to join NATO.
Official Kiev is desperate for strong security guarantees to protect it from renewed Russian aggression, while the return of US President-elect Donald Trump to the White House raises fears of a quick resolution to the war that would leave it exposed.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry pointed to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, under which Kiev gave up the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal in exchange for security guarantees, including from Russia, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
“Today, the Budapest Memorandum is a monument to short-sightedness in strategic security decision-making,” the ministry said in a statement, marking the anniversary of the agreement signed on December 5, 1994.
The ministry said the agreement “should serve as a reminder to the current leaders of the Euro-Atlantic community that building a European security architecture at the expense of Ukraine’s interests, rather than taking them into account, is doomed to failure.”
Ukraine canceled the Memorandum in 2014, long before the 2022 invasion, when Russian troops seized and annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula before supporting paramilitary allies in the east.
Fighting in eastern Ukraine, which has killed thousands, led to an uneasy ceasefire followed by dozens of rounds of talks under what is known as the Minsk agreements.
Even after nearly three years of all-out war, Kiev has rejected the possibility of returning to similar talks that could lead to a temporary ceasefire but leave open the possibility of another Russian invasion.
“Enough of the Budapest Memorandum. Enough of the Minsk agreements. Enough twice, we cannot fall into the same trap a third time. We simply have no right to do so, Ukrainian President Volodymyr,” Zelensky said.
Kiev wants NATO members to extend an invitation to the alliance’s foreign ministers’ meeting starting on Tuesday, as the invasion approaches its third anniversary and Russia scores successes on the battlefield.
The foreign ministry statement called on the United States and Britain, also signatories to the 1994 Memorandum, as well as France and China, which it said had also joined it, to support providing security guarantees to Ukraine.
“We are convinced that the only real guarantee of security for Ukraine, as well as a deterrent against further Russian aggression against Ukraine and other states, is Ukraine’s full membership in NATO,” the statement said, according to Reuters.
